Overcooked [Game Review]

Title: OvercookedDeveloper: Ghost Town Games
Publisher: Team17
Platform: Xbox One (also on the Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows)
Category: Simulation
Release Date: August 2, 2016
How we got the game: We bought it

We first heard of Overcooked when a couple of our favorite YouTubers played it on their channel PB and Jeff, and it looked so silly and fun that we put it on our to-play list. When we finally got the game about a year later, we weren’t disappointed.

This game is hilarious to watch others play and just as hilarious to play yourself. Of course, it can get tense and stressful, but that’s part of the fun.

Overcooked features these little cartoon chefs trying to work together to cook up dishes in various kitchen settings. Most of these settings are ridiculous and puzzle-like in appearance. Cooperation and communication is key to winning enough points to get through the level.

Together, you and your partner go through the orders listed at the top of the screen. You need to coordinate with one another – someone to chop, someone to get the plates, wash the dishes, deliver the food, and more. A lot of the areas are small and tight causing you to run into each other often and get stuck… which usually results in you screaming at your partner to move and get out of the way.

Yes, this game can probably be on that list of “Games that Ruin Friendships” with Mario Kart and Monopoly. The controls are fairly simple, as you really only use three or four buttons. You move with the analog stick, pick up items with A, perform actions like chopping with X, and can dash (and smack into others) with B. The A button could be a little finicky at times, but it wasn’t bad.

Yes, the controls were easy but sometimes you’d have to be in the right spot to pick something up or put it down. There were so many times my character would put chopped mushrooms on the counter beside the boiling pot rather than putting it inside the pot. Oh, and the kitchen can catch on fire. That was always fun.

Luckily, the game provided you with a fire extinguisher. If you weren’t fast enough, though, then the whole kitchen can go up in flames!

Overcooked is quirky. The graphics are very cartoony, with the playable characters ranging from different people, animals, and even a box. It matched the fun music, even if the countdown music successfully makes players panic enough to, perhaps, mess up on the last few dishes.

I loved the graphics. They were bright and colorful and even though the characters were so simple, they were cute and unique in a way. I ended up playing the game as an orange cat, someone you would definitely want to be cooking your food. The music was calming despite how stressful the game is, but it worked. The countdown in the last ten seconds or so reminded me of the timer in Sonic games where he was about to drown.

Oh my God, it did… I never realized that until you just mentioned it. The apocalypse music was a little ominous at times, making it seem silly rather than suspenseful when coupled with the cartoon graphics. It definitely worked for the game.

The story for this one is plain and simple. It’s a little silly but the main thing about this game is the gameplay. The Onion Kingdom is in peril as the beast, a giant meatball with spaghetti arms is starving and we need to feed it. The Onion King and his dog, Kevin, entrusts us to build up our cooking skills so we can satisfy the beast and save the world.

That’s pretty much it. The introduction gives you a brief overview of the controls before the Onion King decides that your cooking skills are not up to the task of sating the beast. He takes you back in time where you then travel to kitchens of the world (including space and Hell) to hone your cooking skills until it is time to face the beast in the apocalypse once again.

The story was a bit abrupt, especially at the end, but as I said earlier, the story wasn’t the main focus of the game. So it worked well.

Overcooked is tons of fun and it’s always a good challenge to try to beat your scores on the limited number of levels. The only major downside to this game is that it is definitely more catered to multiplayer. With that said, the more people you have playing, the more chaotic the kitchen can seem, even if chores can be evenly divided between everyone.

We beat the game together and then grabbed our two cousins into playing with us. We started the game over and having four people in the kitchen is definitely chaotic but so much fun. I can see us playing this over and over again.

Overcooked gets…5 out of 5 lives.

Have you played this game? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!